Thu 19 Jun 2025 iStock
Surgeons in Houston, Texas, have used robotic tools to perform heart transplant surgery on a patient without opening his chest.
The minimally invasive surgery, performed at Baylor St Luke's Medical Center, reduced surgical trauma, blood loss and infection risk and increased recovery time for the 45-year-old patient.
During the procedure, surgeons made small incisions in the upper abdominal wall below the diaphragm, eliminating the need to open the chest and break the breastbone.
The robot was then navigated through the preperitoneal space in the abdominal wall to remove the diseased heart. The same route was then used to implant the donor organ.
“Opening the chest and spreading the breastbone can affect wound healing and delay rehabilitation and prolong the patient's recovery, especially in heart transplant patients who take immunosuppressants,” said lead surgeon Dr Kenneth Liao, chief of cardiothoracic transplantation and mechanical circulatory support at Baylor.
As it’s a minimally invasive procedure compared to traditional chest-opening procedures, the recovery period is drastically reduced, with less risk of infection and complications.
The patient had been in hospital since November 2024 with multiple mechanical devices supporting heart function.
Following the transplant in March 2025, the patient spent a month in hospital recovering before being discharged, without any complications.
Liao said: “This transplant shows what is possible when innovation and surgical experience come together to improve patient care.
- Hospital ‘superbug' that digests medical plastic raises infection concerns – new study
- Honda R&D successfully launches and lands reusable rocket prototype from Japan facility
- 'Poor planning’ by grid operator REE blamed for April blackout in Spain and Portugal
“Our goal is to offer patients the safest, most effective and least invasive procedures, and robotic technology allows us to do that in extraordinary ways.”
Dr Todd Rosengart, chair of the department of surgery at Baylor, said: “This robotic heart transplantation represents a remarkable, giant step forward in making even the most complex surgery safer and we are delighted to offer this great success to the world.”
While this marks the first robotic heart transplant in the US, the first in the world took place in September 2024 at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on a 16‑year‑old patient suffering from end‑stage heart failure.
In March 2025, an Australian man with severe heart failure survived 105 days with an artificial heart made of titanium while he waited for a donated human heart.
